political perspectives from Joni Hudson-Reynolds, an African-American Mom

72% of Black children are born out of wedlock…is this the new norm?

FROM MOGULDUM FILMS: Today’s media is inundated with stories of black single mothers, child support cases, and so-called “welfare queens.” The African American community at large has clapped back at criticism from Don Lemon, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News reporter Ben Carson, and even Black leaders like Bill Cosby and President Barack Obama. 72% provides a raw and analytical view of the media’s portrayal of this phenomenon in regards to African-American households. Single black mothers chime in to tell their stories from their vantage point. Cameras follow one single mother of three as she changes hats from full-time employee to full-time caretaker in order to provide and care for her children on her own. 72% leaves no stone left unturned as it seeks to expose this issue from all perspectives and compel viewers to reconstruct the African-American family from the ground up. “The purpose of our films is to spark debate. Here at Moguldom, we accept the challenge of initiating spirited and provocative discussion. 72% is another example of presenting an issue so culturally relevant and important, that examining it was the natural thing for us to do,” says Brett Dismuke, President of Moguldom Entertainment.

Comments

Reblogged this on Blackness, Queerness & Flows of Survivance and commented:
I suppose the real question for me is, “who cares?” Marriage isn’t much to hoot and holler about. We know the divorce stats and furthermore, folks don’t need a ring, state-sanctioned relationships, or even two parents to live to their fullest potential (it might even hurt in some cases.)

Truth be told, I care. Marriage is (or should be) a bedrock and pillar of our community. Too many people trivialize it or don’t have enough examples of it being done successfully to understand that. I have been married to the same woman for over 26 years, and I can say that my life wouldn’t be the same without that marital bond. You say “folks don’t need a ring”. Technically you are correct. If you have two people who are committed to their relationship and do not waver from it, you can make it. The ring is just a SYMBOL of that commitment. But as far as marriage goes, that ring symbolizes that commitment, and the “state-sanction” acknowledges it for all of society and puts teeth into the agreement from a legal standpoint. You can easily walk away from an “arrangement”; too many people do. In a perfect world people would respect the marital relationship and not hinder it. But too many people don’t take their vows seriously, and too many outsiders will not respect that union for selfish reasons. Marriage can work, if people commit to it and don’t treat it as a suggestion instead of a bond.

This is an embarrassment and a disgrace to the black community in particular and to our society in general. We are more than just “higher functioning animals” that mate and part, seeking out other consorts to randomize the gene pool. We make a commitment to our offspring to be there and to be accountable to them legally, emotionally, spiritually. Other than court-ordered child support (when you can get it) there is no actual, enforceable tie to the child without the covenant of marriage. We have young brothers growing up without fathers in the home, trying to figure out how to be a man. We have young sisters growing up without someone to teach them how to be treated by a man, so they settle for the hackneyed uncouth attempts of young brothers who have no clue.The result is another generation not knowing how to do the “family thing”.

Randomly “hooking up” early and often weakens family bonds and teaches the next generation that family is essentially meaningless. The out of wedlock rate was lowest in our community before the Great Society. Once we were successfully duped into dismantling strong family ties (which our people were denied in slavery, btw) by telling women that if a man was in the house you couldn’t get welfare, the destruction of the black family and the moral decay of our society was on in earnest. Now we have people asking “what good is marriage anyway?” There are young twenty-somethings in our communities that have never attended a wedding. Is this the legacy we want for our people? The mating habits of the wildebeest?

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